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The Effects of Over-Consumption of Meat Products

Our diet should include meat because just like fruits and vegetables, they have nutrients and minerals that our body needs to be healthy. But moderation is advised because if you consume too much meat, they can also have side effects. As cliché as it may sound, too much of everything is dangerous, eating meat is not an exception.

One of the most known mineral that we can get from meat is iron which is important for our bones and body structure. But what happens if we have more than the needed amount of any minerals in our body? They are converted to as fats – which can eventually lead to obesity and other complications if not excreted from the body.

Also, too much intake of meat can make you mount up to high uric acid which will develop into gouty arthritis, kidney stones, and renal failure.

More than that, too much meat can cause:

Type 2 Diabetes

Dan Nadeau, MD, an endocrinologist, said that people who have more meat in their diet have higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compare to those who rarely eat meat or don’t include meat in their diet at all.

Colon and Brain

The University of California, Los Angeles conducted a study which showed that too much iron from meat raises the chances of having Alzheimer’s disease even at young age.

Colorectal cancer is more likely to develop as well if your diet involves too much processed meat. They also can cause immune system problems and inflammation.

Cardiovascular Disease

Meat is rich in carnitine that produces trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) which is linked to atherosclerosis. It is the build-up of fats in your arteries that can be the reason of your heart attack.

Increase of Cancer Risk

Heating up meat (grilling and frying) forms up compounds such as heterocyclic amines (HCA) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). These two are believed to be one factor for the increase chance of developing cancer.

The importance of health and the effect of over-consumption of meat to our body is our major concern here. But there are also other areas where meat industry is associated to and that we should also be concerned about it, as well.

Awareness about animal cruelty has been available on pages of newspapers and in your television screens. A simple caging of animals is already a violation because, just as we are, they also have to be freed for them to live a healthy life. Animals do not only function as our food, they also have their share for the cycle of life in this world.

But just as caging them is a problem, their land occupancy is also rising up as a problem, too. Take for example the dimension of land that is needed to raise a herd, it needs acres and acres of land. It is one of the leading reasons for vast deforestation in the whole world.

These deforestations are one factors causing climate change that in itself are lethal to mankind.